Next years firewood

[Ross J]

With the very capable assistance of my grown son and a couple of friends we have next years wood in for the fireplace.<br />We were offered free selection of numerous trees from T tree, Pine, Willow, Poplar and Macrocarpa.<br />This morning we took out 25m cubed and have delivered it to our mother-in-law and my brother in law, plus a couple of metres to an elderly friend who always gets some from us. That left us with about 10m3 for our own use. It'll get split tomorrow and stacked away to weather for the summer. I even made my own log jack this year to use and it worked a treat. Wish I'd done that years ago.<br />It's great to have the wood collection done this early and it'll be well seasoned by the time its needed. I'm at work now and it's just gone below 3 degrees C. Fire at home is keeping the household warm! All I need now is some pine cones for the hut down the hunting grounds.<br />Ross

 

[all thumbs]

Re: Next years firewood

The cold weather is just around the corner for us. Hard to believe with the heat right now. I can appreciate the work you did, nice to have it done with. Not familar with a couple of your trees but sounds like alot of soft wood. But the price was right, enjoy.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Next years firewood

Thanks to that freak ice storm we had last January, I got this winters plus next winters wood split and stacked. Was done with all of it by March. Maybe that is why I got my boat in early this year. <br /><br />I only burned 130 gallons of fuel oil last winter. Hopefully this year it will be less since it is 1.89 a gallon. Last summer I paid 1.18 a gallon to fill the tank.<br /><br />Good to hear your around Ross. Glad you got your fire wood caught up. It seems to always be something that has to be done.

 

[lakelivin]

Re: Next years firewood

Don't know about wood in NZ, but found the following site about heating with wood very educational for anyone intrested from the US. <br /><br />It contains a table comparing the btu's available for different kinds of wood. It also has a table of Ratings for firewood with categories for: Relative amount of heat; Easy to burn?; Easy to split?; Have heavy smoke?; Pop or throw sparks?; General rating and remarks. <br /><br />Keep in mind it's from the Missouri cooperative extension office, so if you live far away from MS it may not have some of your loclly available woods.<br /><br /> http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/forestry/g05450.htm

 

[ErikDC]

Re: Next years firewood

Mayfloat, that was one h*** of an ice storm wasn't it? Both the cable and power lines were laying across the driveway and the meterbox was torn off the house. I still have a massive pile of pine branches in the backyard that I want to burn but it's been either too wet or too dry. I have two cords of seasoned maple, walnut and oak for the winter! Not taking any chances!

 

[crab bait]

Re: Next years firewood

hi ROSS.. L T K SEE.. <br /><br />your really killin' us yanks .. speaking that foreign language.. all those metric figures..

 

[Ross J]

Re: Next years firewood

Crab Bait, 25m is about 7 cords.<br />10m is about 2.75 cords.<br />I don't know how much wood you guys burn each year but for us thats average for winter.<br />Fire is used from late May till end of August, only in the evening till mid winter then 24 hrs a day for a few weeks. Fire is an inclosed type with glass door, it gives excellent heat with limited wastage. Our house is fitted with a "heat pump" which is just an attic mounted fan with ducts which pumps hot air from the lounge to the far end of the house. We threw out the electric blankets and electric heaters years ago. Don't even own one now. Dropped the power bill considerably!!<br />Just wish we'd added that wet back for hot water!<br />Ross

 

[crab bait]

Re: Next years firewood

that's cool.. <br /><br />a good hillbilly cord is a full sized pick-up truck bed ..stacked 4 foot high..<br /><br />7 cords is considerable amount.. for say north carolina..<br /><br />ROSS,, explain this 'heat pump' better.. you mean all it does is suck air from the 'lounge' an re-distribute it thru out..??<br /><br />what/why 'lounge' what's there..?? the fireplace..??

 

[Ross J]

Re: Next years firewood

Crab Bait, our house is shaped like a large U with one arm being only lounge and dining room with kitchen. The fireplace is in the lounge which is one end of the "U" shape. The other end of the "U" is bathroom and x5 bedrooms plus study/office. The heat from the fire is too much just for the lounge and so I fitted a large commercial silent fan (German) in the attic which sucks the heated air up from a vent in the ceiling of the lounge and through a large pipe pumps it into the other end of the house where the bedrooms are. <br />It's worked brilliantly, we can keep the whole home heated to about 19-21 degrees C throughout the night just by adjusting the fire flue. The pump is worked off a thermostst which only turns on once the lounge temperature reaches a preset degree (usually we set this at 20 degrees C). Thus any excess or wasted heat is used up elsewhere in the home. Saves having the furnace type heating I read about a lot, like you guys have there in the States. With the price of oil I couldn't afford to have that anyway. This manner of heating costs a little for electricity but since the firewood is free we actually save heaps on power since theres no electric heating costs at all.<br />If there's any downside to this it would only be a slight loss of heat should anybody open a window during the night. But then again that'd be the same no matter what type of heating was used.<br />The air is returned via the corridor and flows back into the lounge to be reheated at a slow rate which doesn't seem to cool the room down much at all.<br />Ross

 

[crab bait]

Re: Next years firewood

that's really neet..!! i like it..<br /><br />i'll be over shortly.. i know you don't need ALL FIVE bedrooms.. ..<br /><br />pretty wild,, a 'U'shaped house.. <br /><br />there's jokes in there somewhere..<br /> "at least your not gonin' in circles" " <br /><br />"wouldn't have a U boat to go along with that german fan.?" <br /><br />"the oldman that lived in a 'U'."

 

[butch290]

Re: Next years firewood

Thats a good feeling when you are ahead of the game. I have a 3 years supply stacked,been heating with wood for 26 years. <br /><br />butch